Friday, January 29, 2016

As people of faith coming from unique traditions, we work towards economic policies that place the dignity and worth of God’s people and all creation at its center. As world leaders gather on February 3rd to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, we ask whether the agreement measures up to what Pope Francis calls an “economy of inclusion.”

The Interfaith Working Group on Trade and Investment invites you to join us for a National Call to Action on the TPP. We will discuss the agreement’s implication for the environment, for rural communities living on the margins, and for patients seeking affordable access to medications. Hear from experts in these three areas, learn about what you can do, and why this is an issue of faith.

To join the Call to Action, dial 303-248-0285 and enter access code 6017869#

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Register now for Advocacy Training Weekend!
April 15-18 in Washington, DC

We are pleased to announce that a member of United Workers will be speaking at Compassion Peace and Justice Training Day April 15.

"Doreen Hicks has been working since she was nine years old, and has been a leader with United Workers, a human rights organization based in Baltimore, since 2008. She first met UW working as a temp at the Camden Yards stadium, which had recently won a struggle to guarantee the workers there a living wage. Doreen has been elected to the UW Leadership Council, worked as a Summer Organizer in 2010, and is an active part of the Working Matters coalition for Paid Sick Leave."

The undersigned 273 civil rights, labor rights, faith-based, immigrant, human rights, humanitarian, and legal service organizations respectfully request that the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in consultation with the Secretary of State, designate El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras (an area known as the “Northern Triangle”) for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). These three countries warrant TPS designation in light of the dramatically escalating violence that has precipitated a humanitarian crisis of refugees fleeing the Northern Triangle countries.

TPS is Grounded in Well-Established, 25-Year-Old Statutory Authority

Using clear statutory authority under section 244 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the DHS Secretary has currently designated 13 countries for TPS: El Salvador, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, Liberia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Per the statutory requirements of INA section 244(b), these designations are premised on an ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or extraordinary and temporary conditions that prevent nationals of these countries from returning safely. Current designations for El Salvador and Honduras are based on environmental disasters in those countries dating back to 2001 and 1998 respectively, and therefore require TPS beneficiaries from those countries to demonstrate presence and residence in the United States since that time. More recent arrivals are ineligible for TPS.

TPS was created by Congress with the passage of the Immigration Act of 1990 to address gaps in U.S. immigration policy and regularize the process by which our government accommodated those gaps. Congress understood that a stay of deportation and employment authorization are necessary for nationals who are already in the United States but who cannot be deported safely due to temporary conditions in their home countries.

INA section 244(b)(1)(C) provides that the Secretary may base a TPS designation on a finding that “there exist extraordinary and temporary conditions in the foreign state that prevent aliens who are nationals of the state from returning to the state in safety, unless the [Secretary] finds that permitting the aliens to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the national interest of the United States.” Each of the Northern Triangle countries clearly meets this criteria given the devastating recent uptick in violence.

Country Conditions in the Northern Triangle Merit TPS Designations

In 2015, the death toll in the Northern Triangle of Central America was 17,500, higher than in all but three zones of ongoing armed conflict: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. This death toll was higher than four West African countries struggling with the Boko Haram insurgency and even higher than the death tolls in Somalia, Libya, and South Sudan. Notably, this rapidly escalating violence occurred in a geographic region the size of the state of Oregon and home to just under 30 million people. To put this endemic violence into perspective, Honduras alone had more homicides than the 28 states of the European Union combined in 2014.

The causes of the violence are complex and fueled by lack of government accountability, capture of state institutions by organized crime, impunity and widespread corruption, control of territory by organized criminal groups, brutal militarized law enforcement practices, rampant inequality, and weak democratic governance mechanisms. Unsurprisingly, this violence disproportionately impacts women and children. For the last six years, the Northern Triangle countries have ranked within the world’s top four countries for rates of femicide, while El Salvador and Guatemala have the highest homicide rates in the world among children. The extreme violence is not limited to these groups, but pervades all corners of society and threatens many who return to these countries.

El Salvador El Salvador, a nation of 6.4 million people, is racked by drug-fueled violence, with entire city neighborhoods controlled by powerful gangs known as maras. El Salvador recently overtook Honduras as the murder capital of the world. Officials recorded 6,657 people murdered in El Salvador in 2015, a 70 percent increase from 2014. The homicide rate of 104 people per 100,000 people is the highest for any country in nearly 20 years. El Salvador's murder rate surged in 2015 due to increasing battles between security forces and the country's two most powerful gangs—the Barrio 18 criminal group and their rivals, the Mara Salvatrucha(MS-13). In August 2015 alone there were 907 murders representing the highest monthly toll since the 1980-1992 civil war. An estimated 75,000 civilians died in El Salvador's 12-year civil war, an average of 6,250 per year of the conflict—a figure below the number of homicides in 2015.

Guatemala Guatemalans face epidemic levels of violence and a government that is unable and unwilling to protect them. The criminal insurgency by transnational criminal organizations and gangs against the state reflects a serious and pervasive armed conflict within Guatemala. Consequently, levels of violence have soared, making Guatemala’s homicide rate the fifth highest in the world. In 2012, Small Arms Survey ranked Guatemala third in the killings of women worldwide, even rivaling the rates of the country’s 36-year civil war.

Moreover, cumulative environmental disasters have plagued Guatemala including earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, tropical storms, floods, drought, and landslides. Guatemala has declared a state of public calamity on various occasions and received limited international humanitarian assistance. In 2005, Hurricane Stan caused the death of more than 1,500 people, impacted 500,000 people, and led to $989 million in damages. In 2010, the Pacaya Volcano erupted, scattering volcanic ash and debris across Guatemala City, bringing economic life in the capital of 1.5 million residents to a standstill. Two days later, Tropical Storm Agatha hit, killing 174, injuring 154, affecting close to 400,000 Guatemalans, and causing nearly $1 billion in damage. Agatha also led to the evacuation of 112,000 and displacement of 20,000 Guatemalans. A recent landslide in October 2015 caused additional devastation and the deaths of hundreds. The cumulative loss of infrastructure, harvests—including thousands of hectares of agricultural land—and homes caused extraordinary loss of life and livelihood, with women, children, and indigenous communities at particular risk.

Honduras:With a homicide rate of 57 per 100,000 people, Honduras suffers 10 times more homicides than the world average and four times the number of homicides than the average country in the Americas. Criminal gangs often target children and young adults for recruitment and to commit crimes. Disturbingly, for young adult males between the ages of 20 and 34, the murder rate in Honduras exceeds 300 per 100,000. Gangs also regularly target girls and women for forced recruitment, sexual harassment, and exploitation. After her visit to Honduras in July 2014, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women noted that violent deaths among women had increased by 263 percent between 2005 and 2013 and that Honduras criminal justice system had a 95 percent rate of impunity for femicide and sexual violence crimes.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

There are substantiated reports of Honduran police forming death squads and committing extrajudicial executions in both San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa. The militarization of police in Honduras began in 2013 with often-masked Military Police (PMOP) deployed into some of the more violent sectors of the large cities. These police are at the top of the civilian national police structure (FUSINA), a force mistrusted both by those inside and outside the government because of the high rates of corruption and complicity with organized crime. Nonetheless, the PMOP are an extra-constitutional body and have been implicated in a growing list of abuses, made even harder to address because of a lack of civilian accountability and anonymity. Recently, child advocacy organization Casa Alianza documented that in the last two months, the PMOP were involved in at least six extrajudicial executions of children and youth. Abuses attributed to the PMOP and FUSINA include beatings, harassment of civil rights activists, forced disappearances, sexual assaults, and murders of poor or disadvantaged Hondurans. A February 2014 report by El Heraldo, the leading newspaper, found that over 200 national police were implicated in killings for hire, drug theft, and corruption.

TPS is a Critical Component of a Package of Humanitarian Protection

We welcome the announced expansion of refugee processing abroad for nationals from the Northern Triangle countries who are fleeing persecution and the ability for them to apply for refugee status in a safe, third country in the region. This development is a sorely needed expansion of the Central American Minor (CAM) In-Country Refugee Processing Program, through which certain children from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are permitted to apply for refugee status from within their home countries. It is incumbent on your Administration, however, that refugee processing represent part of a comprehensive package of protection from harm for those fleeing violence in Central America.

Moreover, these programs are an explicit acknowledgement that country conditions in these countries are steadily worsening, the outflows of mothers and children are driven by severe violence, and safety for many is increasingly elusive. The January 2016 withdrawal of U.S. Peace Corps volunteers from El Salvador—the first time in over 40 years—in addition to the September 2012 withdrawal of volunteers from Honduras, is further evidence that no one is immune to the region’s escalating violence.

The risk of deportation to the Northern Triangle countries is tangible and profound. According to a comprehensive study conducted by social scientist Elizabeth Kennedy at San Diego State University, between January 2014 and September 2015, at least 83 nationals deported to El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala were reported to have been subsequently murdered, with 45 murders in El Salvador, 35 in Honduras, and three in Guatemala.

Designation of a country for TPS should be premised on whether country conditions meet the statutory requirements set by Congress and must not be impacted by unfounded fears of increased refugees arriving at our nation’s border. TPS eligibility is strictly limited to individuals who are physically present in the United States prior to designation. Moreover, outflows from these countries are primarily driven by push factors of extreme violence and persecution, not domestic immigration policy. There is no historical precedent or evidence of additional foreign nationals attempting to enter the United States as a consequence of a TPS designation. Certainly, your Administration has not shied away from taking bold action to exercise its discretionary authority to establish Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals despite critics’ unfounded and speculative allegations that such exercise would drive others to migrate here. Moreover, even a federal court has taken a dim view of the argument that the Administration’s policies allowing undocumented immigrants to remain in the country contribute to future migration.

The asylum system plays a key role in protecting many of those who flee persecution in their home countries. However, despite the high rates of homicide, femicide, and other forms of violence, the overall success rate for Central American asylum seekers in U.S. immigration courts is very low. While due process issues and lack of counsel play a role, the standards for securing asylum are very narrow, require very high levels of corroboration, and many of the reasons that Central American asylum seekers need protection, such as fear of persecution due to opposition to gangs, involve a complicated and evolving area of asylum law.

Given the urgent nature of this request and the risk placed on the lives of those who are deported, we request your timely consideration and prompt reply. If you need additional information or have questions related to this request, please contact Royce Murray, National Immigrant Justice Center, at rmurray@heartlandalliance.org or 312-718-5021.

The Improving Child Nutrition Integrity and Access Act of 2016 would streamline summer and after-school meal programs to make it easier to serve meals to kids year-round. The bill allows some states to provide summer EBT (electronic benefit transfer) cards to families in hard-to-reach areas to purchase groceries. It also allows some states to use alternative methods of reaching kids when they are unable to make it to meal sites.

Importantly, the bill does not make cuts to SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) or other anti-poverty programs to pay for these changes. One in five children in the U.S. lives at risk of hunger. For every six low-income children who receive a school lunch, only about half also get a school breakfast. Only one also gets a meal during the summer months.

Stay tuned for information about how to push your Senators to bring this important bill to the floor for a vote.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

The
scriptures remind us of God’s desire for abundant living: “The thief comes to
steal, kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."
(John 10:10). Abundant living is difficult to achieve in a society where
headlines are driven by the slogan “If it bleeds, it leads.” In 2010, the 219th
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved a policy
statement calling for a reduction in gun
violence entitled “Gun Violence and Gospel Values: Mobilizing in Response toGod’s Call".Since then, the PCUSA Office of Public
Witness has vigorously advocated for Congress to act.But, consistently, in congressional office
after congressional office we have been met with statements about the American
people’s opposition to any type of gun legislation. Ironically, when I visit
many of these same congressional districts, constituents consistently ask, “What
is your office doing about gun violence?” I concluded long ago that inaction on
this issue is representative of a lack of courage.

Last
night, President Obama demonstrated that abundant living is grounded in a
feeling of being safe and secure and that in order to live abundantly we must
have the courage to implement its requirements. The President signed an
executive order implementing common sense gun laws. His executive order
includes:

·Keeping guns out of the wrong hands by requiring
that anyone in the business of selling firearms have a license and run background
checks on all purchasers of weapons (this includes online purchases)

·Making background checks more efficient and
bringing an outdated background system into the 21st century

·Getting more ATF personnel trained, hired, and
equipped to investigate and assist with reducing gun violence

·Offering additional assistance for people with
mental illness so that they can get the help that they need (The vast majority
gun deaths are a result of suicide)

·Boosting new technology (smart technology) to
improve gun safety

President
Obama’s executive actions will likely be challenged in the courts.But, I am deeply impressed with his courage
to stand up for the requirements of abundant living, even at the risk of being
misunderstood or maligned.I pray that
we will witness the same courage in state and local communities.May this bring new energy to constituents who
are willing to speak truth in love to power and continue to press for laws to
reduce gun violence in the United States - 50,000 gun violence incidents and 312
mass killings in 2015 alone.

The
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness will continue its support
of measures to reduce gun violence in the United States. More importantly, we
will continue to lift up the prophetic vision of witnessing peace abound – a
day when men, women, boys and girls will engage in abundant living and not kill
one another anymore.

About Me

The Presbyterian Office of Public Witness is the public policy information and advocacy office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Its task is to advocate, and help the church to advocate, the social witness perspectives and policies of the Presbyterian General Assembly. The church has a long history of applying these biblically and theologically-based insights to issues that affect the public — maintaining a public policy ministry in the nation's capital since 1946.
Reformed theology teaches that because a sovereign God is at work in all the world, the church and Christian citizens should be concerned about public policy. In addition, Presbyterian forefather John Calvin wrote, "Civil magistry is a calling not only holy and legitimate, but by far the most sacred and honorable in human life."